TIDERUNNER

TIDERUNNER
Newsletter of the Annapolis Chapter of the MSSA
“More Fish – More Catching – More Fun”
September 2012
Visit us online at
www.mssaannapolis.com
In This Issue
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Message From The President
pg 1
September Meeting
pg 1
Crab Feast – Mike’s Crab
House
pg 2
Lower Bay Fishing Update
pg 2
EVAN Foundation Tournament pg 2
Summer Fishing Trip
pg 3
Bay Hunter II Fishing
pg 4
Calendar Of Events
pg 5
Chapter Officers &
Leadership Team
pg 5
Businesses That Support
The Annapolis Chapter
pg 6
2012 Rock On Warriors
Sponsors
pg 7
Greetings to everyone. I can only think of one word to describe this summer…HOT!!
The fishing was also at times very hot. I was only able to get in one offshore trip, but,
what an outing it was. After a slow start trolling for tuna we decided to pull up and run
about 30 miles to the Hot Dog. We arrived about noon and danced our way into an open
spot and set up for chunking. As you all know normally when you show up to the party
that late it’s slim pickens at best. So naturally I headed for the chicken bucket, grabbed a
cold one and looked forward to a long nap. I got one bite out of that extra crispy leg when
all hell broke loose. Two and a half hours later we were out of anglers and bait. They ate
everything including my half eaten chicken leg. We managed to boat 22, fifty plus pound
yellow fins (my back still hurts). It was an epic day.
Bay fishing was a bit of a mixed bag from all reports; however, if you are into light tackle
fishing there is no shortage of white perch and small strippers. With no major storms or
dam water releases the bay appears to be relatively clean and it looks like it’s setting up
for a nice fall. Please check out the calendar of events section of the news letter for details
on up coming events and tournaments.
I hope everyone had a great summer of fishing and fun and I’m looking forward to seeing
many of you on Wednesday, September 19th at Mike’s Crab House as we gather for our
annual chapter crab feast.
Tight lines!
Bob Sheehan
President
SEPTEMBER MEETING
The September meeting of the Annapolis Chapter of the MSSA will be held at Mike’s Crab House
(Riva Road at the South River) for the chapter’s annual CRAB FEAST on Wednesday, September
19th 7:00 to 9:00 PM. The menu will include crabs, ribs, fried chicken, and salad bar along with
many other items and beverages (alcohol not included). The price is $35.00 for members and
guests. Call Larry Muscatello for last minute tickets at 301-261-1451.
The Annapolis Chapter October meeting is set for Wed., Oct. 17th at 7:30 pm at American Legion
Post #7 at Rt. 450 and Crownsville Road in Annapolis. Our guest speaker is Captain Tom Hughes
who will discuss light tackle fishing at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We will also be joined
by Gary from Spankin’ Stripers Lures who will have a display of his lures for sale—all just in
time for the fall season
CRAB FEAST MIKE’s CRAB HOUSE
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19TH 7:00 P.M.
The Annapolis Chapter of the MSSA will host a Crab Feast for members
and their guest. The Crab Feast will be our first meeting following the
summer break. Our menu will include ribs, fried chicken, salad bar
along with many other items and beverages. Alcoholic beverages are
not included in the Crab Feast. The price is $35.00 per person. Mike’s is
located at 3030 Old Riva Road, on the South River at the Riva Bridge.
Call Larry Muscatello 301-261-1451 with questions.
Lower Bay Fishing update
We have seen the fish appear at the Cedar Point area over the last week
or so. Those that fished it with me know how good it was jigging and
casting to them. Rockfish and blues mixed in together. The Stripers for
the most part are 16 to 18 inches, but catching as many as we did you
do get keepers. The Blues are 2 to 3 pounds and on light tackle it will
wear you out. If you troll the schools as some do, you can catch and
pull on fish and even get more Blues because of more rods used. But to
play a Bluefish on a jig is a memory and a sore forearm by day’s end.
There are Spanish still here but they will be going soon, as the first cool
weather shows up. The days are getting shorter, so it is coming, now is
the time to get them.
I am still catching fish on the shore near structure and believe they are
getting larger. I have caught a few 16 to 18 inch Red Drum as well. The
Perch are still holding along the shore line so casting for them is working.
When the water cools Perch will more to deeper waters to spawn.
Flounder are still invisible to all, one die hard I know tried all the
known drop off/edges and took no fish home. Trout are in the Honga
River and Marsh Islands or caught bottom fishing near the sound. That
is an all day trip over there.
So for now we are catching Schooling Stripers and Bluefish, casting and
jigging. My hopes are this weather change does not change the fishing
except to improve it more. If you can call in a day for sick leave or
annual, we can get out there and catch them while they are here. Call me
directly is always the best at 443 532 0836. Look to hear from you soon.
A photos from TOMCAT’s weighins on FRI and SAT during the
TUNAMENT. The six fish stringer weighed 220 pounds and took
second place in the 6 fish TWT ($1108 prize money). Anglers
on Friday were Pete Abbott, Lee Slagle, Ricky Holmes, Dr. Ray
Atcherson, and Cash O’Rourke. The Team on Saturday was Dr.
Ray, Kevin McMenamin, Ken Navis, Lee and me. Proud to
have kept the Annapolis Chapter on a leaderboard in another
MSSA tournament.
Life is short – fish often,
Capt. Sonney
EVAN FOUNDATION Tournament
William Harper of the
Annapolis chapter of
the Maryland Saltwater
Sportfishing Association
(MSSA) holds his first
place trophy for catching
the largest fish in this year’s
1st annual MSSA Spring
Trophy Rockfish Tournament
t o b e n e f i t t h e E VA N
Foundation. Harper caught
a 49 inch rockfish during the
tournament which earned him
the trophy and valuable gift certificates from the tournament sponsors.
29 entrants participated in this first ever event which raised over $3500
for the EVAN Foundation (www.theevanfoundation.org) a Marylandbased non-profit organization dedicated to ending neuroblastoma—a rare
pediatric cancer. Special thanks to Marty’s Sporting Goods, AllTackle,
and BFG Tackle for their contribution of prizes for the tournament.
Annapolis Chapter members catching tuna.
SUMMER FISHING TRIP
The summer fishing trip had mixed results. It depended where you
decided to fish as to whether you had a fishing trip or a catching trip.
The Chesapeake Beach group had a awesome trip. They left the dock
at 2PM, headed over to Eastern Bay, and limited on Rock. Then they
went perch fishing. They caught 60 perch before the weather chased
them to shore. Captain Randy Dean did them proud.
Those of us that fished out of Solomons did not do well. The lunch at
Stony’s was FABULOUS, but from there it went straight down hill. We
left the dock at 3pm and headed south into 2-3 foot waves and a good
15 mile an hour head wind. The plan was to catch blue fish until dark
and then head over to the croaker grounds. The ride down to the blues
fishing area was 2 1/2 hours in a head sea. We fished off Point Lookout
on the eastern side of the bay near the target ship. The Miss Suzie II
did not catch any blue fish, but we did have one hell of a fight with a
crab pot flag marker. The other boat, the Fin Finder II, did catch two
small blues. It’s now been four hours and Miss Suzie II has not caught
a fish. We anchor up at the croaker honey hole, which is just north of
Smith Point. We are almost in Virginia. We can see lightening north of
us and heavy rain shows on the radar. Luckily for us we only got wind
from the storms. Both boats had people that were under the weather at
this point. As soon as the weather broke we asked Captain Gregg to
cut the trip short and head home at 9:30. It was a 2 1/2 hour ride home
with decent sea conditions.
The Miss Suzie II caught 18 croaker that were about 10 inches. The
Fin Finder II caught 77 croaker that were about 10 inches. In talking to
Captain Gregg he gave me the impression that mid July until September
was the SLOW period in Solomon’s. He was taking his boat down to
Norfolk to Cobia fish for several weeks.
In reviewing what happened on our trip, and having to book so far in
advance to get a specific Wednesday night, we will only fish out of
Chesapeake Beach next year. The boats out of Chesapeake Beach can
go to Eastern Bay or the Gas docks from their central location. We
will have to catch perch rather than croaker. CATCHING IS MORE
FUN THAN FISHING.
Ron Schaefer
Fishing Trip Chairman
BAY HUNTER II FISHING – July 18, 2012
Nine members and guests of the Annapolis Chapter of MSSA arrived
just after 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Rod and Reel dock for an
afternoon and evening of fishing on the Bay Hunter II with Captain
Randy Dean and his sons Ryan and Matt aboard his 46 foot Bay Boat.
The Bay Hunter II is one of the largest and best kept boats in the fleet
with a 16 foot wide beam allowing for plenty of fishing room at the
rails. 1st Mate, Ryan prepared the boat with ice and bait and filled the
tank with $260 of diesel fuel for our trip.
The fishermen consisting of members Pete Abbott, Tim Palmer, Larry
Stotsbery, Keith Phillips, Ken Egan, Fred Menage, Robert Montue
and his two guests, Ronald Cunningham and Greg Canfield boarded
the boat with their coolers to enjoy an cruise across the Chesapeake
Bay to Eastern Bay where the fishing action was taking place.
Because of pending afternoon thunderstorms predictions and the fact
that Randy had plenty of live spot in his bait tank, we decided to head
straight to the rockfish to catch our limit. The boat ride was uneventful
as we rounded the north end of Popular Island and entered Eastern Bay
south of Buoy 84A.
We saw the fishing fleet anchored up in about 25 feet of water inside
the bay and Randy started his search for the school of stripers. Ryan
and Matt attached small live spot to each angler’s fishing rod as we took
our positions at the rails on each side and the back of the boat. Randy
soon found a large school of fish and cut off his engines and laid out
his anchor. Randy and Matt tossed out some spot chunks on each side
of the boat to attract the fish to the boat and everybody dropped their
lightly weighted lines into the water. We immediately started hooking
up on the schooled fish and they were being brought to the surface for
netting. The fish were measured and keepers were tossed into the fish
box, smaller fish were released as was a sick looking fish with sores.
Randy stated that he feels the sores are due to handling the fish but I
disagree with his theory which is another story for another day. We soon
caught half of our limit as the fishing slowed because the schooled fish
were on the move, so we pulled the anchor and started the hunt again.
Randy found some fish and process started again. We were able to catch
a few fish before they moved off, so looking around Ryan spotted the
birds working the surface toward Popular Island. Randy pulled the
anchor and off we went to fish among the breaking schoolies with our
live spot. We soon had our limit of two fish each and put the live line
rods and reels back in the rack for our ride back across the bay to North
Beach/Holland Point area to bottom fish with bloodworms for perch
and spot (for bait). The ride back across the Chesapeake Bay was a bit
rougher as the breeze from the south had picked up some. Next year I’ll
mention to Randy that us old folks would prefer a slower and smoother
boat ride to the fishing grounds. We started our drift in less than 10 feet
of water and started catching small spot, small croakers and some 8-10
inch perch, which were kept for Robert and his guests. Very soon a very
large dark cloud appeared in the northwest sky and the Radar showed a
large storm moving into the area. A sudden gust of cooler wind stirred
up the water and the anglers and a decision was made to head on back
to the safety of the dock. A short boat ride back to the Rod and Reel
dock was had, but an outgoing tide and the westerly wind made for a
difficult docking job for Randy and the Bay Hunter II.
All the anglers and crew were happy that we made it back without
getting wet although the trip was cut short by a couple of hours due to
the weather. Randy cleaned the fish and distributed them to the happy
fisherman. Ronald was the winner of the largest fish pool of $40 with
a rockfish of a little over 25 inches. On a very hot day, we enjoyed the
cooler breezes on the water and a boat ride and fishing trip on bay with
a top notch captain and crew aboard a clean, roomy and well equipped
fishing boat. Hopefully we will all be around next year for another great
day of fishing on the bay!
Fred Menage.
MSSA Secretary
Annapolis Chapter
Calendar of events
September
14-1634th Annual Challenge Cup. O.C. Marlin Club
(410)213-1613 www.ocfishing.com
15
Boatyard Beach Bash, 5 – 9 pm, Annapolis Maritime
Museum www.amaritime.org
15
River Rock Fall Fishing Tournament, Rock Hall
(410)778-2561 www.riverrockmd.com
19
MSSA Annapolis Sportfishing Crab Feast, Mike’s Crab
House, Riva Road at South River, 7 - 9 pm. Contact
Larry Muscatello (301)261-1451
www.mssaannapolis.com
20-23Harbor Tackle Red Drum Tournament. Assateague
Island Surf Fishing (410)957-4516
www.keepersofthebeach.com
24
CAPCA Special Event. Flare Shoot for members
only at Annapolis Sailing School, 700 Bembe Road,
Annapolis, 6:30 – 9:30 pm (410)267-7651
www.capca.net
October
8
CHAPTER OFFICERS and
LEADERSHIP TEAM
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bob Sheehan
Chris Rosenthal
Fred Menage
Jean Hoffman
Crab Feast Chairman
Holiday Party Chairman
Intra-Chapter Tournament
MSSA Scholarship Committee
MSSA Tournament Committee
Newsletter Editor
Ocean City Fish Chairman
Raffle Chairman
Rock on Warriors Chairman
Saltwater Fishing Expo Chairman Saltwater Fishing Expo Coordinator
Speaker Chairman
Summer Fish Chairman
Web Master
Website Content Editor
(410) 507-8491
(410) 727-5735
(410) 798-5868
(410) 923-0769
Larry Muscatello
NEED VOLUNTEER
Bob Thompson
OB O’Bannon
Dale Dirks
Paul Herrmann
Lee Slagle
Brian Stempowski
George Brown
Pete Abbott &
Kevin McMenamin
Ed Kalb
Dale Dirks
Ron Schaefer
Craig Teuber
Fred Menage
Pasadena Sportfishing Group meeting at 7:30 p.m.,
Earleigh Heights Fire Hall, Richey Hwy, Severna
Park, MD. www.pasadenasportfishing.com 11-14 U.S. Powerboat Show. Annapolis City Dock.
www.usboat.com
13-1413th Annual Rocktoberfest Tournament. OC Bahia
Marina (410)289-7473 www.ocfishing.com
17
SSA Annapolis Sportfishing Chapter Meeting,
M
American Legion Post 7, Crownsville, MD at
7:30 pm. www.annapolis.com
21West River Heritage Oyster Festival. 12:30 – 5:00
pm, Captain Avery Museum Shady Side
(410)867-4486 www.captainaverymuseum.org
22CAPCA Meeting, Annapolis Elks Lodge #622,
Edgewater. Social hour starts at 6:30 pm. Meeting
starts at 7:15 pm. ‘Crashing through the surf with the
USCG’ www.capca.net
Life is short,
fish often!
Lets catch some fish
in Solomons!
Businesses that SUPPORT the ANNAPOLIS CHAPTER
One South Street, Suite 2600
Baltimore, Maryland 21202-3201
www.kramonandgraham.com
Kramon & Graham, P. A.
George E. Brown
Office: 410-752-6030
Direct Facsimile: 410-361-8205
Cell: 410-274-9341
E-Mail: [email protected]
ROCK ON WARRIORS 2012 SPONSORS
Larry Muscatello
F RE E DOM